Story 2: The Key to Romans: The Preeminence of Christ
Romans 1:1-6
The first chapter in Paul’s letter to the Romans begins with verses that explain the grandest, most powerful ideas ever thought by a human…and that is because the thoughts first came from God. The letter proceeds to encompass the whole spectrum of reality, from the broad ranges of life within human civilization to the deepest, most intimate struggles of every human heart. Understanding Romans provides a rich and truthful grid by which to understand our world and its relationship to the eternal God, which in itself is a profoundly stabilizing framework for life. When we rightly align with God’s perspective, everything else falls into place. It is the true route to wisdom and inner peace.
Paul starts by introducing himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. This is what he wrote:
“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son…”
As we read this, it is important to remember that Paul lived two thousand years ago. The culture was very different. Being a servant meant something quite different than it does now. In Paul’s day, when someone was a servant, it generally meant that he had made a life-long commitment to serve his master. He would never leave him. The servant played such an important role in the master’s life as he went about doing is master’s business that when he spoke, he spoke with the authority of his master.
To be a slave or a servant of someone who had high rank in society meant that you were of high status as well. In this passage, Paul wasn’t claiming to be the servant of a mere general or the emperor of Rome. He was claiming to be the servant of the Most High God! The audacity of it was insane…if it wasn’t true. That was the title that had been given to the prophets in the Old Testament. They claimed to be speaking for God. It their words were not true, it was a terrible arrogance, and a true evil. But if their words were true, if they really were communications from the Creator of the universe to the human realm, then they were the most important words ever spoken.
At the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that Jesus Christ Himself separated Paul out to be a special messenger, one of the great heralds of the New Covenant. Paul’s message was the most important ever told, and as God’s servant, he had the authority to give it. God had bestowed on Paul the right to speak for Him. The writings of Paul are a part of our divinely inspired Scripture. Wow. What a breathtaking privilege. Imagine! It was important that those who heard Paul’s message believed that he had the authority to give it. The same is true today.
Paul continues to write, putting the focus on Christ Himself:
“…who was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Scripture of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all Gentiles on behalf of His name, among who you are also the called of Jesus Christ”
When Paul mentions King David, he is doing several things. The Jewish people understood from Scripture that their Messiah would be a descendant of David. The fact that Jesus was a direct descendant was important. That means King David was His great, great, great, grandfather. (You can add ten more “greats” in there. King David lived a thousand years before Jesus came, with fourteen generations between them.) It also meant that Jesus had human parents. He was fully human. Paul explained in the book of Philippians that Jesus willingly “…emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). While He lived on earth He needed to eat and drink, He became tired, He felt uncomfortably hot and cold because of the weather. Sand could get in His eyes, and His feet hurt after a long journey.
Immediately after asserting that Christ was human, Paul says that Jesus was also the Son of God. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote that all things in the universe were created through Christ and that He continually holds all things together (Colossians 1:17). Though He was fully human, He never stopped being perfectly holy and all-powerful. He was always fully God. God the Father sent His Son from eternity to earth, and Jesus obeyed His Father. He left all the beauty and happiness and painless joy of Heaven to come live among us on this wicked planet.
When Paul uses terms like King David and the Son of God, each of them are like quick references that point to whole storehouses of rich biblical insight that Paul wants His audience to keep in the forefront of their thinking. A rich understanding of Christ’s divinity and humanity is the critical lens by which to understand everything else Paul will write in his letter. Everything to follow in the book of Romans hinges on the preeminence of Christ Jesus and what He accomplished when He came to earth.